Disclaimer - We all know this right? All the characters, plotlines and places that JKR created are hers and hers alone. Any new characters, places or plot lines belong to this author, seeker68. Oh, and I'm not making any money on this either.

Charcoal Memories

SLAM! The front door crashed shut so hard that the glass faced bookcase in Harry’s office on the second floor rattled. He could hear the footsteps pounding through the entryway, each heavy footfall shaking the pictures on the walls of his home office. The stomping continued accompanied by furious mutterings of rage. The cat scrambled for cover with a howl, the coat rack thumped against the wall where Harry assumed a winter cloak must have been thrown against it. The cursing, stomping and general acts of fury continued across the lower level of the house towards the back sitting room, accompanied by feminine growling and berating of all males in general. Harry winced at one particularly nasty bit of language and wondered which Potter female was the redheaded storm responsible for disrupting his calm day.

“Bloody hell! If you’ll just…” BANG! “Owwww, no thzzt wzz unc lld fr…Li…” BANG! “Oi!! I szd…” Harry winced a second time as his previous question was answered. Lily was undoubtedly the female wreaking havoc downstairs and she’d just hexed Albus…twice. It had to be Lily as Ginny would never use magic on her children. He smiled…She didn’t seem to have the same reservations on use of magic when it came to him, of course not all of those spells were used as punishment.

Harry stacked the reports he was reviewing into the ‘Completed’ box on his desk, scooted his chair back and stood. One big cleansing breath later he left his office for the first floor. Halfway down the stairs he met Albus, his hands covering his swollen nose and lips while several large bogies attacked his face.

“Plss Dadd, cnn u…” The youngster mumbled through his hands

“Hold still, son,” Harry said. Two flicks of his wand later and his son was restored to normality.

“I swear, Dad, I didn’t do anything…She just went mental on me, even more mental than usual.”

“Did she say anything at all? What am I in for?” Harry questioned.

“Nothing; she just complained about boys, hexed me…twice…and then stomped into the back sitting room. Girls are so weird. I don’t understand them half the time,” Albus confessed.

“Let me give you some advice, Al. Never get too close to a redheaded female when they’re angry…never.”

“So I should hide? That seems kind of cowardly. I mean, you faced Voldemort and you’re telling me to hide?” Al said, looking to his father for his reaction. Harry simply smiled at his youngest son, who then cottoned on to the advice as given. “Right, okay then, twitchy redheads are worse than Voldemort, got it…later Dad. Oh, good luck. Got your wand?”

Harry flashed his wand from his pocket and continued down the stairs. The sitting room itself was painted in a light yellow and outfitted with comfortable overstuffed chairs, a day bed, and many pillows. It was, and always had been, Lily’s favorite room. The southern exposure and tall windows kept the room bright and cheerful, and even in the middle of the cold Christmas holidays the room felt warm and inviting. He knew it was bad when he slipped through the half-open door to find Lily on the window seat hugging a large throw pillow, fresh tear tracks still glistening on her flushed cheeks, staring out across the snow covered garden.

Lily, having noticed her father’s entrance, swiped angrily at her cheeks before muttering, “Dad, are all boys thickheaded gits, or just the ones I’m attracted to?”

“Just my guess, but I suppose we’re all thickheaded gits at some time or another.” He followed up with, “even the girls.” Lily sniffed a little and Harry continued to talk softly, sitting next to her on the window seat. “What’s going on, Lily? You and Al get on just fine, so whatever is bothering you is pretty big if you hexed him because of it.”

“Boys are gits,” she stated again. Harry simply smiled at her and kept quiet, willing her to continue. “Will Baynecroft in particular.”

“I see…he’s the young man that you’ve been so happily snogging all around the castle isn’t he?” Harry smiled knowingly “Not a broom closet that hasn’t been visited, so I hear.”

Lily’s jaw dropped in shock. “Buu…how do you…I…we…” she muttered, her cheeks flushing in embarrassment.

“Lily, I’m an Auror; you don’t think I know?” Harry laughed softly and shook his head.

“But…how? How did you know? You don’t…spy on us, do you?” She asked with incredulity.

"No, I don’t spy on you. In fact other than a few mentions in your letters I didn’t know anything at all about Will Baynecroft, until just now. Your reaction kind of tipped me off.” He patted her leg and gave her the same crooked smile that always calmed Ginny. “So…what’s poor Will done?”

“We were at the park, sitting on the bench near the pond…talking, holding hands…and snogging a little after ice skating… Dad, we were really close and staring into each other’s eyes and…I…I told him that I…well, that I loved him. I’ve not really said it before to a boy, and he gave me a huge smile and we kissed, and then rubbed noses a bit, and…Oh Daddy, it was so perfect…and then he kissed the end of my nose and said…and said…” she sniffed angrily. “...and said…I like you a lot too.” She sniffed again, and a lone tear slipped down her cheek. “Stupid prat…I like you a lot? That’s all he could come up with?”

Harry scooted closer and put his arm around her. “I’m so sorry, baby.”

“Why is it so hard for boys to say it? I mean you tell Mum all the time. I’ll bet it was easy for you two, you’ve been in love like…forever.”

Harry stood from his seat and slowly stepped around the room trying to figure out the best way to comfort his daughter. What would work better? A patented ‘Dad story’ or the truth… He stepped to the west wall and fingered a framed charcoal sketch which hung above a photo of him and Ginny after one of her matches. He lifted the artwork from its brass hook. “You ever look at this?” he questioned her, turning the sketch so she could see it.

“Yeah, it’s some sketches of you and Mum, when you were younger,” she answered.

By this time Harry was once again sitting next to her. “Yes it is. We were spending some time in France during the first summer after the war…Your Mum still had to finish school, and I…well I was still pretty closed off after spending that year on the run. Your Aunt Fleur’s family let us stay with them in their Paris flat for a few weeks to get away from the British wizarding press and…well, everything.”

Lily nodded. “Okay, but what’s that got to do…”

“Shhhh,” he said softly, “We’ll get there, I promise.” He nudged her shoulder and began his story. “That summer, I was still in shock that I was alive. Ginny had told me she loved me three days after the final battle. It was the first time we’d been left to ourselves, and we were sitting along the low wall that connects the gardens to greenhouse three.” He sighed heavily. “She said it so plainly, that I wasn’t even expecting it…and I couldn’t say it back.”

“You didn’t love her!” Lily said in shock.

“I didn’t know Lily, see…When I grew up, nobody used the ‘L’ word. Not the Dursleys, no way. And Sirius or Remus had never said it to me. I didn’t know what love felt like… Your Mum, she was expecting it, and I knew I disappointed her… But I didn’t want to say it without it being 100% true…and I just didn’t know what love felt like, because I’d never known it. Does that make sense?”

“No, not really. How could you not know?”

“You know how when you’re sick Mum makes you soup…and she darns your socks for you the muggle way so they last longer than charming them, and on your birthday you get to pick all the food choices for the day…”

“And when we were little, you’d tell us every night that you loved us when you tucked us in…you still do,” Lily finished his thought.

“Right, all that…I didn’t have that as a child. And it’s okay now, but until your Mum told me that day, nobody had ever said the words to me before. And to be honest, it scared me to no end to hear it. I didn’t know what love felt like.”

“So what’s that got to do with me, or Will, or this sketch?”

Harry traced the two figures in the upper left corner of the canvas. The rough charcoal sketch showed a young couple walking along a riverbank. “We were walking along the Seine…”

Harry walked slowly along the cobblestoned path beside the river, contemplating the same thing he’d been thinking about for the last month. Did he love Ginny? She walked beside him, chatting about Fleur and their time away, and other light topics letting Harry sort himself out. It was the same thing she’d been doing since they left Britain. Harry reached out and gently intertwined his fingers with hers, giving her a grateful smile in the process. She stopped talking, thinking he might be about to speak. But as usual, words failed him.

Harry wondered to himself just how long she’d put up with him. Sure they’d talked about the war, and horcruxes, and Ron leaving. But the one subject that they never talked about was the same one he desperately needed guidance on, love. Contrary to popular opinion, Harry wasn’t that thick when it came to girls, but then he wondered if a byproduct of being thick was not realizing it when it was staring you in the face. Ginny started back up her one-sided conversation and Harry fell back into his thoughts.

‘I must love her, don’t I? I can’t imagine my life with anyone else. But, when I was infatuated with Cho it was the same feeling, wasn’t it?’ He answered his own question. ‘No, it isn’t.’

Ginny pointed to a riverside park a few blocks down. “Why don’t we find a bench and watch the river for a bit?” she asked hopefully. Harry nodded yes and Ginny’s face lit with happiness.

‘I do love her, I do…I love her more than I know how…probably more than is healthy.’ It was time to say the words, he knew he meant them, and now the thought of not telling her was simply not an option. But he was scared, so scared to leave himself completely open to defeat.

“I love you,” Harry said matter-of-factly.

“You…you what?” Ginny asked in surprise before chuckling aloud.

“You just said it outright? Just like that?” Lily asked.

“I did, and when I heard her laugh that little bit…Well, I thought she was making fun of me,” Harry said softly.

“No, Mum wouldn’t…”

“I know she wouldn’t now, but back then… You see Lily, until that time everybody I’d ever opened up to or trusted… They either didn’t return the feelings, or they died… At that point I could only see myself with your Mum. I wanted her to be the one for me. But I’d taken forever to get to a point I could say it, and Ginny, well she’d not said the words or mentioned anything about the day she told me. It was just this big empty chasm between us, and had been for weeks and weeks. I felt like I was standing on the edge of the chasm, and when I said ‘I love you’ to her that I’d jumped off the edge, and was praying that she’d catch me by repeating the words back to me. But, she gave me that little laugh instead… I felt myself plummeting down into nothingness…so I took off, ran away from her.”

“That’s this part here isn’t it?” Lily used an outstretched pinky to trace another small rough image on the lower left side of the sketch, showing a young man in glasses at a dead run, with a long haired woman chasing after. “What happened next?”

Harry dropped her hand and ran as fast as he could down the pathway, dodging other pedestrians, vendors and artists set up at various places around the small park. He darted left or right, seeing the world before him blur as his eyes teared up. Harry could hear Ginny yelling for him to stop, but his legs kept pumping at full speed.

“Harry!” Ginny shouted as she chased him into the riverside park. He was quite a bit taller than she and his longer strides gave him the advantage, but he had to slip in between other people, slowing him enough for her to gain ground. “Harry! Please stop!” She was gaining rapidly on him now as he began to tire, other park patrons, businessmen and families stared at the young couple.

Harry felt his legs growing heavy after the three block run. Here in the park, there were more artists along the walk, each jockeying for the best view of the river. More children, more tourists, more everybody and they all seemed to be in his way. “Please stop!” Ginny’s voice carried over the sounds of the city. He cringed hearing her voice, wanting her to catch him, but at the same time needing to escape so he could process his defeat. He jostled roughly past a large group on a sightseeing tour, he cut laterally to his right and was grabbed from behind. He swiped at the person holding the back of his jumper, fighting to free himself, but their grasp was too strong.

“So Mum was able to catch up to you?”

“Yeah, she did. Your mother can be rather determined.” Harry smiled at his daughter. “You get your determination from her.”

“Why’d you stick around? Why keep pretending if you don’t care about me? Let me go,” Harry said brusquely. He glanced around, noticing that he and Ginny were the center of attention for many of the parks patrons. “Let me go, I don’t want to talk to you.” He wrenched his body away from her and strode away.

Ginny, not one to give up so easily, dashed after him, and quickly caught him a second time, where he’d stopped near a curve in the path. “I am NOT letting you go! Not now, not after everything we’ve been through.”

“YOU LAUGHED AT ME!” Harry spit out angrily. “I know I’m thick, and cursed, and I know that I’ll just end up being the Ministry’s puppet. But I…I didn’t expect…”

“STOP! Let me explain!” Ginny interrupted.

“What’s to explain? I get it, okay, I get it. You said it to me ages ago, and I didn’t say it back. And I know you hate me for it, but to laugh at me…that’s just…cruel…” Tears slipped from below the frames of his glasses as his words died out.

“No, Harry, no…What I’m trying to say…” Ginny tried to explain.

“You don’t have to do this any longer, so just go. Your job is finished. You’ve played nursemaid to me for weeks now. I don’t need any more of your pity. I get enough pity from myself to do the job up right. Just go back home.” Harry finished his rant with a depressed sigh of defeat. “Just leave me alone…”

“You pushed her away again, Dad?”

“I was so hurt Lily, that I…” Harry replied.

“But you didn’t hear her out, you just fought with her and wouldn’t let her get her say in,” Lily stated. She turned from watching her father’s face to the framed canvas. “Dad, you were being so thickheaded and unfair. Ohhh, I can’t believe Mum didn’t hex you.”

“But don’t you see Lily? Two people, even people who care deeply about each other, don’t always see eye to eye.”

“But, it’s so obvious that you did love her, and she loved you…” Lily said in exasperation. Harry spoke calmly to his daughter. “We did, but being in love doesn’t mean you’re always in tune with the other person. The timing wasn’t right.”

“But Dad, she’d said it and it wasn’t the right time, and then you said it and it wasn’t the right time…so, when is the right time? I mean, if two people in love as much as you and Mum are can’t get it right what hope is there for a mixed up girl like me, or pig-headed Will Baynecroft?” Her voice quivered signaling that she was mildly upset.

“It does make you wonder doesn’t it?” Harry questioned, using his free arm to hug her shoulder.

“So we’re to this one?” Lily asked in return.

“Yes.” Harry wiped his thumb over the upper right corner of the picture where a third little sketch showed Harry and Ginny toe to toe arguing,

Ginny let her hand drop to her side as Harry turned away and took a couple of tentative steps towards the river, away from Ginny. She swiftly slipped around in front of him and spoke gently. “Please don’t go, Harry. Let me explain.”

Harry tried to look away, he truly did, but he wasn’t strong enough. His eyes met hers and soon he was lost in the depths of her chocolate brown eyes. She was so close her flowery scent entranced him and when he fully caught her gaze, he noted the flecks of gold in her eyes, and knew he couldn’t walk away. Not from her, not ever.

Her voice brought him back to his senses. “I didn’t mean it to hurt you. Remember when I told you, outside the greenhouses? You weren’t expecting it then, were you? But you did a better job of controlling your reactions. I suppose that’s from years of doubt, or mistrust…or whatever… And I’m sorry you lived like that for so long, so long that you didn’t know how to respond when I said that I loved you.” She took each of his hands in hers, holding them gently to assure him.

“Don’t be. I think I know why we’ve been avoiding this for so long. That was the first time you’d ever…”

“Yes,” he answered before she could finish the question.

“And today?”

“Yes again. I’ve never said it before.” Harry squeezed her hands softly.

“I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings, Harry. I’m sorry. And this part is really important, vitally so. I did not laugh at you because I doubted you, or your feelings. And I certainly didn’t laugh because I don’t love you. I do, with all my heart.” Her words held so much emotion, so much love, that he knew she was being one hundred percent honest with him.

“Then why?” He queried.

“I knew what you’d been doing, since that day at Hogwarts. After I said that I loved you, you were analyzing it. Whether you deserved it, did you love me, did I really love you…And on a bigger scale maybe why did I love you, how would you know, what did love feel like?” She paused and then continued. “I could see it behind those marvelous green eyes. I could see the wheels turning; I could sense you trying to figure it all out. And in the meantime, we kept talking about little things that didn’t matter, and Quidditch, and Ron and Hermione and just…stuff in general. But behind all that, when you were quiet I could tell you were still making sense of, trying to sort out love, and if you were in love with me. Right?”

Harry nodded his head, never taking his eyes from hers as he listened to the girl he loved explain exactly how he’d been feeling and thinking. “Yes.”

Ginny smiled at him, knowing he wouldn’t take off again. “And after watching you sort this all out over the last four weeks…after the calm nights where we held each other close on the balcony of the flat…or the times we lay curled up on the loveseat snogging to our hearts content…or the day we stopped by the carnival and spent a whole day laughing and getting sick stomachs on the treats…today, you just said it. There wasn’t a big build-up; it was just like you, right to the point. And this thing you’d built up to be huge, well when you said it, I laughed because to me it was obvious that you loved me. I laughed because at that moment I was shocked, but I was also extremely happy, Harry. You’d finally said those three little words…I love you… and it sounded sweeter than any other three words I’ve ever heard. And it made me happy, and I laughed because you are the only person who makes me feel this wonderful.”

She released his hands and very gently reached up and slipped her arms around his neck. In reaction his hands settled tentatively on her waist, before sliding around and completing the hug.

“I knew it!” Lily proclaimed. “I knew Mum wouldn’t really laugh at you, not like you thought…not in a bad way. I just knew it!” Lily hugged her father, happy to know the truth at last. “We’re here now, aren’t we?” Lily quickly motioned to the lower right of the frame where the charcoal lines depicted the young couple in an embrace.

“We are, and I know you didn’t doubt your Mum, but think for a second how you were feeling before I explained that last bit to you. How I, or your Mum, were feeling as we went through this on our own.”

Lily calmed as he tried to describe the emotions of the day. “Mum was afraid she’d messed it up right? And you were scared weren’t you, Dad?

“I was terrified…” He admitted.

“Which brings us to the center sketch doesn’t it?”

Harry hugged her close and nuzzled her neck. She responded by clenching him tighter and tilting her head up to kiss along the bottom of his jaw. “Let’s sit,” she murmured into his chest after ending the soft kiss. Together the young couple made it the few steps to the closest wood and wrought iron bench. Harry sat and as soon as he was settled Ginny slipped into his lap sitting sideways.

Harry took a deep breath, held it and exhaled slowly. He gave Ginny a brief smile, and then as if by silent agreement, both leaned towards the other. Harry gently brushed his nose to Ginny’s before tilting his head slightly allowing her soft, warm lips to gently meet his. The soft, gentle kiss ended but neither pulled away, choosing instead to rest their foreheads together. “Ginny, what do we do now?”

“Snog?” she said with an impish grin. Harry blushed. She responded seriously a moment later. “Well, I’m not sure. There’s so much we have to figure out.”

“You’ll be gone…finishing school.”

“Do you still want to be an Auror? That training takes two years…and…you know my dream, right?” she asked worriedly.

Harry nodded. “You’ll be the best chaser the Harpies have ever had.”

“But that means more time away from each other, games, training, travel.”

“Teddy,” Harry added in. “I have to look out for Teddy. I know Andromeda will be keeping him. But I have to be there for him, I owe it to…”

“I’ll help. I want to help.” Ginny wrapped her arms around Harry’s shoulders and hugged him again, much tighter than either of the previous hugs.

“I’m going to marry you Ginny.” He said it as plainly as he’d said he loved her earlier.

“Oh, Harry, we aren’t ready…”

“Shhh,” he placed a finger on her lips to silence her. “I know, not now. I don’t know when…but some day I will marry you Ginevra Weasley. That’s part of why it took me so long to figure it out. It’s all or nothing, and for me all means you and me forever.”

Ginny leaned into him again, and placed the most gentle but passionate kiss on his lips that she could. He responded, and returned the kiss as passionately as she had given it. After three, or seven or, well who knew how many kisses later, the couple slowed and finished with one last soft kiss. “So we’re agreed then?” Harry asked.

“Yes. Some day, when we’re ready, we will get married. And I can be Mrs. Boy-Who-Lived.” Ginny’s face lit with love and affection as she allowed herself to think of their future together.

Harry began again. “And we’ll have our own family.” Ginny nodded. “And a big old rambling house in the country,” he added. Ginny nodded again. “…and about a dozen little Potters running around in the yard.” Ginny blanched. He chuckled at her reaction. “Or maybe just a few?” She nodded a third time, envisioning the life he was laying out before them. The life she knew she wanted, and that he ached for.

“I want it too,” she said, placing another passionate kiss on his lips. After the kiss she hugged him tightly.

“I love you.” This time it was whispered softly in her ear. His breath warmed her neck, making her clench him even tighter.

“Oh, Harry, I love you too.”

“I want a big garden, so we can teach the kids how to de-gnome.” Harry gave her a small kiss on the forehead.

“I want to teach my daughter how to fly a broom better than any boy ever could.” Ginny returned his kiss.

“I want a son, so I can pass on my cloak.”

“I hope one of our children has your soft heart,” whispered Ginny.

“Grandkids…do you think it will be fun to be grandparents?” Harry wondered aloud.

A soft shadow fell across the couple as an older gentleman approached them, encroaching politely upon their privacy. “Excusez-moi?”

Harry and Ginny looked up. The gentleman stood well over six feet tall, his thin frame covered in dark slacks and a white shirt. A charcoal smudged apron protected his clothing. “Bonjour,” Ginny said with a smile. After four weeks she and Harry had both picked up bits of the language.

“J’ai un cadeau pour vous,” the man said politely as he handed Ginny a charcoal sketch. The detailed center rendering depicted Harry and Ginny on the park bench. The shading and intricate patterns beautifully portrayed the image of Ginny settled in Harry’s lap, each looking adoringly into each other’s eyes. The love of the young couple captured perfectly by the artist’s steady hand. In each corner a smaller rough sketch of the events of the last few hours played out. In the upper left corner the illustration showed the couple walking and holding hands. In the lower left, the chase was shown. The upper right depicted the argument and tense moments between the pair. And the lower right sketch found the couple standing and embracing each other.

Ginny finished studying the artwork, impressed by the subtle nuances that brought the still image to life before her eyes. She turned to get up, but the older man held out his hands to stop her. “Non,s’il vous plait ne me leve pas pour moi.”

Ginny understood the motion, if not the words and settled back into Harry’s lap. The artist rolled the canvas and tied it neatly with a piece of dark blue silk ribbon, presenting it back to Ginny when he was done.

“Merci,” Harry and Ginny said in unison.

“Pour votre amour,” the man said, giving a little bow of his head.

“He must have been watching us the whole time,” Harry mused.

“He must have. The sketch is beautiful.” Ginny smiled and snuggled back into Harry’s embrace “You’re beautiful, Ginny.”

“Thanks. It’s nice to hear it.” Ginny placed a soft kiss on his neck.

“I love you.” Again he said the words softly so only she could hear. “I’m going to say that so much, you’ll get tired of hearing it.”

“I’ll never get tired of hearing it.” Ginny’s voice from the doorway caused both father and daughter to turn. “Is everything alright in here? When I came though the kitchen Al gave me some crazy story about hexes, and slamming doors and Voldemort?” She walked to Harry’s side and peered at the framed sketch he held.

“Dad and I were just talking,” Lily said, before Ginny could get into full ‘mother’ mode as Lily called it.

Harry hung the sketch back in its place and returned the few steps to stand next to Lily. “Okay then?” he asked.

“Yeah, Dad, much better. Thank you.” She hugged her father, kissing his cheek in the process.

“Uhhh, Lily…There’s a tall blond boy here to see you,” Albus said standing just inside the door to the hallway. Harry quirked an eyebrow to his daughter.

Lily smiled, and blushed a touch. “Dad, can you show him back here?”

“Of course, is this Will?” Harry questioned.

She nodded. “Yeah.” Harry left to escort the young man back to the sitting room.

“Can we talk alone Mum?” Lily asked hesitantly.

“Yes,” Ginny answered, “but keep the door open, understood?”

A moment later a tall thin boy of sixteen stood before them, in his arms a huge bouquet of flowers. “Hi Lily, for you.” He passed her the flowers and Lily grinned in happiness. “Because I was a git earlier today, and I want to explain.”

Harry and Ginny stood watching the interplay between the two teens.

“Mum, Dad…do you mind?”

“Right, sorry. We’ll be in the kitchen if you need us.” Ginny pulled Harry down the hall.

Once in the kitchen Harry levitated over two cups of tea, while Ginny finished unrolling the flesh colored string of an extendable ear.

“Ginny, we can’t eavesdrop!” Harry objected.

“Yes we can; it's called parenting.”

“Ginny, Luv, I don’t know about this.” Harry objected.

“Shush.”

From the sitting room Will’s voice could be heard… “So you see Lil, I didn’t know what to say. You used the ‘L’ word…”

“Ahem,” Lily interrupted.

“Right, sorry. You said ‘love’ and I’m just not sure yet. My older brother, he’s a seventh year, he said just to tell you I love you just to see how far I can go. But I don’t want to do that with you…Well, I mean I do…but not like that…oh I’m messing this all up again.” Will complained.

“Will, do you mean that you don’t want to use the words just to please me?” Lily asked.

“Yes, that’s it. I don’t want to just say them, I want to mean them. And I want to mean them for more than just a chance to keep snogging you. Which is brilliant I might add,” Will explained.

“Will, if I ever think you said ‘I love you’ just to get into my knickers, I’ll hex you so bad you won’t be able to sit for a month…got it?” Lily threatened in the sweetest voice Harry had ever heard her use.

“Got it.” Will answered. “Hey Lil, can we snog for a bit now. I don’t have to be home for another hour or so.”

“Sure,” Lily said with a bit of a playful lilt to her voice. “As soon as Mum reels in her extendable ear so we have some privacy.”

“Damn,” Ginny muttered.

“Told you that was a bad idea,” Harry mumbled.

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a/n - Written for a challenge at Sink Into Your Eyes. The 'Three Little Words' challenge was to describe the first time Harry said those three little words to Ginny. 'I love you'.